College Life

A volunteer was leaving Phnom Penh.  Being so-called so close to the capital city, I went there to see her and had farewell dinner with her. It was a very nice dinner at an Indian restaurant (the volunteer is from India).  I don’t want to describe the mouth-watering food now otherwise I will be hungry (I haven’t had my lunch yet).  Let’s have a look at the photos instead. 😛

And I don’t want to talk about the traffic jam on the way to the airport, how the volunteer changed from being sad to nervous about not being able to catch the plane, how she in the end did her last minute online check-in on my phone in the car as she didn’t have any more data in her SIM card because it was her last day in Cambodia, how she finally got to the airport to check-in her overweight luggage and had to move some items to her carry-on luggage which included a guitar that the Cambodian youths gave her as a farewell gift, and finally how emotional she became and how badly she cried at the airport when we said goodbye to her after she finished doing all these ‘rational’ things.  Let’s just remember how happy she was as a volunteer in Phnom Penh on her lovely bed in her modern room. 

Back to my ‘college life’ (I make it sound like I am a college student now), we started the first week.  As usual, I recorded all their presentations and role plays. Will I give any of them any scholarship this time?  Well, let’s wait and see.

As mentioned in my previous blog, I help to run the English Club which is also an extra-curricular activity in the college. So far, I think it is better than teaching in the village. Apart from the attitudes of the students and the staff I mentioned in my previous blog, the classroom that I use is clean and tidy and it has air conditioning!!!!!!!!!! No insects land on me when I teach!!!!!!!! It is so cool!!!!!! I heard from the management that only a few rooms in the college have air conditioning because electricity is very expensive in Cambodia.  I don’t know if the college has any intention to install solar panels.  In fact, solar panels are not as good as we think.  The panels themselves and their accessories including chargers, etc. will eventually become wastes.  I recently had an online English tutorial with my student from Taiwan, she supports the use of nuclear energy.  As a matter of fact, if you do some research online, nuclear energy is probably the cleanest among all currently available options. It’s just that people need to be careful when they handle nuclear plants. I am not a scientist so I will not go in-depth and I may be wrong. 

For the time being, English Club is opened to freshmen.  The topics are all about the college and it’s mandatory for the freshmen to join.  It acts as an orientation programme.  Starting from next month when the academic year commences, English Club will be opened to all students and the topics I heard will be more serious.  I can’t wait to see that. 

Which photo is better? These two or the one at the top of this post? And why? Write it in the comment box below. 🙂 If you are reading this in your email, you won’t be able to see the photo at the top of the blog post. You need to click here.